A 'major Apple (AAPL) investor' citing 'multiple sources' says that Apple will inform world+dog next Wednesday of an event to be held on October 17 to announce the much-rumored iPad mini.
So says a Monday report by Fortune, which notes that if said source is correct, and if Apple keeps to its usual announcement-to-release …

Re: seriously?

ANALysts consistently increase their forecasts with little / no additional information than you or I - yet people listen to then - so when Apple sell bucket loads of their iPhone 5 but could not make as many as they could have sold people think 'oh some analyst said 8-10m' and they only sold 5m ignoring the fact that 5m was already well up on the 4s which was (you guessed it) well up on the 4 etc. etc.

To stop us all posting the usual buy/no-buy/walled garden comments...

....please give this post an up-vote if you intend to buy a mini iPad or whatever shiny Apple announces; or a down-vote if you have no intention of so doing, you hate Apple or you would've posted a sarcastic or indignant comment on walled gardens.

We'll see who wins after one week, or indeed, whether the Internet cares at all.

Re: To stop us all posting the usual buy/no-buy/walled garden comments...

Re: To stop us all posting the usual buy/no-buy/walled garden comments...

After using a Google Nexus 7 for a week now I can very well understand the allure of an iPad mini. It's a fabulous device, but it's more of a PC than an appliance. Great if you love to tinker around but less great if you just want a polished way of getting some things done without having to care about what's actually happening on a technical level.

Ridiculing people who have no interest in dealing with the computer side of all this is just idiotic.

Steve Jobs...

...also poured scorn on the idea of the iPod playing back video. When asked about such a device, he said "Yeah sure, and it will make toast as well" or words to that effect. To be fair, watching video on the a screen the size of a iPod photo ('Classic' for you kids) isn't that great...

However, Mr Jobs was also not keen on 16:9 displays. I agree with him. He wasn't keen on Flash on mobile devices. I agree with him. He was probably right about smaller iPads (iPhone > one hand, iPad, two hands) at the time, but now that people have got used to the larger device, they will be able to overlook the inherent cramped nature of the smaller device and embrace its advantages (fits in coat pocket/handbag/glovebox).

Re: Careful with the name

Of one thing you can be sure

There will be many an iFan queuing to buy it..... even the ones that already own an iPhone and an iPad, because there will sometime somewhere a moment when the iPad will be just too big, and the iPhone will be just too small. I personally can't think of one, but I'm sure they will.

Media Hype

Let's see. Apple has 68% of the tablet market and is still growing strongly, with only a 10" offering. Rest of world, including dogs sells 10" and 7" tablets - mostly 7". Rest of world plus dogs fighting for market share and only seem to make progress by cutting price.

Tell me again, why do Apple NEED a mini tablet?

Not only that, there is the past stellar results of media predictions on Apple products.

Re: Media Hype

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. You point out that Apple has roughly 2/3 of the tablet market with only a 10" tablet, while the competition sells both big and small tablets. Why wouldn't they want to sell a mini tablet, surely there are some people for whom the iPad is too big and/or too expensive who might consider a smaller iPad if Apple sold one. They may cannibalize their 10" market to some extent, but if you don't cannibalize your own market, someone else will do it for you.

Also, which "stellar results of media predictions on Apple products" are you referring to? When the media laughed at Steve Jobs prediction at the original iPhone release that someday Apple might take as much as 1% of the worldwide mobile phone market share (they are closing in on 10% today) Or when the media thought iPad might see some success, but would never be more than a blip on the radar compared to PC sales? The media does tend to overhype Apple these days (10 million iPhone 5s in a weekend, anyone?) but perhaps that's because they've been made to look silly in the past underestimating Apple, so now they are erring in the other direction.

Instead of killing apple, lets nuke those Analysists?

Analysists (these so called experts) affect everyone of us. Pretty well 100% of us EL Reg readers have money invested in the stock market. This is either directly (owning shares/Stock & shares ISA etc) or indirectly (via our pension funds).

An Analysist say that Company XXXX will make YYYY amount of profit/business next Quarter.

Where YYYY = Last year's figure + {now which way is the wind blowing today} * {What horse came in 2nd in the last race yesterday} * {Hefty dose of wishful thinking} * {do I unload my stock in this company today or tomorrow} etc etc etc

Company announces results which are a little short of Anyalysists guesstimate. Share price drops 20% as a result of thie hefty dose of wishful thinking. Thus the value of your pension fund/shareholding drops accordingly.

Even though the company still increased its profits and/or margin the value of the company drops.

I predict (and I don't own directly any apple Shares but I do own a 4yr old iPod) that Apple will increase its profits but will fail to meet the Analysists guestimates. Thus triggering a whole round of Apple is doomed/finished/about to file for Chapter 11 etc messages.

They won't. But that won't stop the naysayers from spouting forth.

I'll be burrying my head in the sand while all that happens. As I'm in the middle of the Negev this won't be hard.

Re: Instead of killing apple, lets nuke those Analysists?

Re: Instead of killing apple, lets nuke those Analysists?

Your pension fund/shareholding only had its previous high value because of analysts guesses, so it's illogical to whinge when those guesses turn out to have been wrong and the share price falls to a more sensible level.

Re: Please lets get this right....

Isn't the new iPhone 5 16:9? Or at least close to it, as it's now tall and thin. So that gives Apple more tablet options now, without having to support an extra different screen size. They could make their 7" tablet 16:9 because it then fits in pockets.

One issue I see is how ridiculous it's going to make the pricing of the iPod Touch look. They are seriously expensive.

Good on you

What is the point of renaming the iPad to iPad 'maxi' after an iPad 'mini' comes out. We're getting close to the end of the year now and I've read a lot of crap sentences. That ranks pretty high on the craptograph. My mum could come up with better story-padding than that.

I don't get these too restrictive comments - I have MP3s - I import them - I have videos - I import them. iTunes music is DRM free. Other 'restrictions' (video etc.) are more likely imposed by the studios. Yes you can only use the iTunes App store but it's huge and at least they give half a poo about what gets in there - the Android store is full of cr@p. If you are the sort to want to reprogram everything and tinker then Android probably suits you - but for the majority of people who just want stuff to work (and at least be supported for a long time) you choose Apple.

Just got given (back) an iPhone 3GS when they got my old '4' when I upgraded to a '5' last week - it still runs fine and runs iOS 6 and is getting a new owner - it's 4 years old but still a perfectly useable phone and I expect it will be for at least a year longer.